“They cover your whole body,” she whispered, touching one of the gold-hued stripes along his thigh.
Fists clenched, claws digging into his palms, Graeme fought the impulse to pull her up, push her over the small table next to them and just mount her.
That animalistic urge was growing like fire in his gut.
Fully engorged and spearing out from his body, his cock throbbed with the harsh beat of his heart while his testicles were drawn so damned tight they ached. The need to take her, to spill inside her, was becoming more imperative by the moment.
“Cat . . .” The warning in his voice should have been enough to assure her that time was becoming of the essence.
A light sigh of laughter brushed across his thigh as she rose sinuously to her feet, gripped the hem of her shirt and pulled it free of her body. It dropped to the patio alongside his, her shorts quickly following.
Fuck.
What he saw was not nearly as prominent as his own markings, nor the stripes as wide, but her soft flesh was just faintly shadowed with a hint of gold in a pattern of Bengal stripes that amazed him.
“You didn’t tell me.” Cupping her breast, he ran the pad of his thumb over one softly colored stripe arcing over the swollen curve and pointing toward her nipple.
“You didn’t ask.” The mild retort was followed by a sensual little gasp when he caught the hard tip between his thumb and forefinger, applying just enough pressure to send pleasure streaking through her.
The scent of that pleasure, of her hunger, had every muscle in his body tightening while his cock throbbed faster, the stiff length becoming further engorged.
“You don’t have to wait for me to ask.” Sliding his other hand in the hair at the back of her head to hold her still, his lips lowered. “Volunteer the information.”
“When you do . . .”
He didn’t want to hear more.
Covering her lips with his, Graeme gave her what she asked for, the mate that haunted both of them.
Holding her firmly to him, he took her parted lips with a rising need made sharper for the little moan that turned more to a purr as his tongue flicked across hers.
The taste of her was a sensual delight he’d become addicted to with the first kiss. Full of life, enriched with fight and the very nature of her stubborn independence. It was the essence of the most exquisite elixir and he ached for more. Ached for more of her.
Tilting her head back, he took more even as she fought to share in the control of their kiss. Her very nature refused to submit, but her submission wasn’t what he hungered for. Not her submission and not just the fiery pleasure of finding release inside her.
What he longed for in the deepest reaches of his maddened soul was her heart. A heart that even now, he knew he didn’t fully possess.
? CHAPTER 18 ?
Cat tried to fight the pleasure, to hold back some part of herself, even though she knew there was no part Graeme hadn’t already marked.
His kiss dominated her, fed into the hungers the Mating Heat was only strengthening and burned through her body like wildfire. One broad, callused palm cupped the swollen curve of a breast while the other smoothed down her side, her hip, before flattening against her lower stomach and pushing between her thighs.
Long, talented fingers slid through the excess moisture that gathered between the folds there, sliding over her clit, curving and finding the entrance to the depths of her aching sheath. And once there he didn’t hesitate. As his palm cupped her mound, his finger slid inside her, parting the sensitive tissue as Cat went to her tiptoes with a gasp of pure delight.
Curling his finger once inside, he found that ache deep inside, the one that only the barb had found when he released inside her. Now the tip of his finger found it, rubbed it, caressed it, stoking the rising need gathering inside her until she didn’t think she could survive if he made her wait much longer to climax.
The pad of his palm rubbed against her clit, stimulating it further, increasing each sensation gathering inside her * until she was on the verge of begging him to take her. She needed him to take her, ached for it, would have screamed for it if his lips and tongue hadn’t trapped the sound inside her.